Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-05-09
Government Control of Rail.
NNaYR.

At a speech made before the Boston
Railroad Clerks Association, April
10Th, Mr.. J. T. Furber, General Mana.
ger of the Boston and Maine Railroad,
said
cat no very distant day, which l may
not live to see, but many of you will, the
United States Government may take
control of the railroads Of the country.
You may smile at my statement, but if
you will examine some of the char
ters that have been given in some Of the
States you will find that the charter
contem plates just this state of affairs as
far as the State is concerned. II you
for one moment stop and examine the
progress which legislation has made
step by step towards getting control OF
the railroads you will fiud II has but
little farther to go before the roads are
controlled perfectly thereby.
The railroad is the creature of the
States creation, clothed with great aud
unusual powers, and as compensation
for such creation and for such clothing
with such great powers becomes the SER
want of the public, and the men who in
vest money therein must expsN that the
public will control it through the gov
ernment.
The framers gof the con stitution of the
United States understood this and pro.
vided therein that Congress should
control commerce among the States.
Our railroads are being corfalled
together into great systems, our State
Commissioners are SO near in control OF
our roads that they are able, to certain
extent, TO dictate in regard to our con-
struction and operation, and now comes
the United States with an Interstate
Commerce Commission and controls our
rates. What more has the government
to do but to order the money col
lected by the railways into the
United States Treasury, appoint the
employees, and pay dividends to stock
holders, in order to take full and per.
feet possession of the railway lines of
the country? Stockholders will as will
ingly receive their dividends from the
general Government as from Board OF
Directors, and when the roads are col.
lected into great systems the Govern.
ment can easily take possession OF them
and manage them without the least
difficulty.
l am aware, gentlemen, that this is
not a very popular doctrine at this time,
and that perhaps majority of the people
woald at present vote "no" on such
proposition; but. nevertheless, time will
correct all this and prepare the same in.
dividuals to clamor for the governmental
control of railroads.
1t is natural for us all to find fault
with any new thing or proposition for
change in our accustomed way OF doing
things. We have of late heard consider.
able fault finding with the Interstate
Commerce law, but Notwithstanding
that it has broken up the free pass sys-
tenn and thus destroyed all the sociabili-
ty of railroading the law will remain on
our statute books and the courts will
punish offenders. | don't hesitate to
say that the law has given you, gentle
men. more work and trouble than it has
anybody, still have never heard rail-
road clerk find fault with it.
There have been abuses and favoritism
in the matter of transportation OF both
freight and passengers, and nobody
knows it better than the men l see
around me; nobody knows better than
the gentlemen here assembled that the
Interstate commerce law, minus the long
and short haul clause, is good and Just
law, and should be enforced to the let
ter. 1t is pity that the long and short
haul should be Incorporated into the
law, but we cannot find much fault for
it was copied from Massachusetts,.
1t originated in the brain OF our tirst
Chairman Of our own State Commission,
Mr.. Charles Francis Adams, now Presi-
dent of the Union Pacific railroad, a
man for whom have the highest esteem
and respect, a man of great ability and
strict integrity, and one who l heartily
wish could have been Chairman OF the
Interstate Commission, for fully believe
he would have at once seen that while the
long and short haul clause might be safely
applied to local business within single
State it could not be applied to
through business where product comes
in competition with product, or wher.
water ways GENE in composition Will
railways, without causing obstruction Il
free commerce between the States. Whel
the present unsettled condition OF tn
transportation business becomes set
tied in accordance with tn
new conditions governing them an,
the long and short haul clause sha
have been repealed, everybody will b
satisfied with the law and will wonde
why it was not proposed before, an
then another step will have been game
by the government upon the ladd'
which leads to the ground upon whic
railroads are to be put under gover
mental CONTROL"